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from Mouvement des étudiants pour la réforme de l’enseignement en économie (MEPREE) France and RWER #75 The basic background ideology: free individuals, free markets and “invisible hand” The e-Book overtly proclaims that it adheres to “methodological individualism”. That is, individuals are society’s point of departure. They are “free to choose”, between consumption and leisure for “Angela the farmer” and “Mary the employee”, e-Book’s typical consumer, and between leisure and...

This was the component of GDP that was touted as a sign of underlying consumer strength, as per the last quarter over quarter move up: However, the same data looked as year over year change- call it a 12 month moving average- shows that looking past the data’s ‘volatility’ there was a move up during the last phase of the burst of oil related capital expenditures chasing $100 oil followed by a continuous deceleration that began when the oil related capital expenditures...

from Mouvement des étudiants pour la réforme de l’enseignement en économie (MEPREE) France and RWER #75 “Students in economics all over the world were asking, just as I had asked a few years previously: why has the subject of economics become detached from our experience of real life?” (Camila Cea, Member of the CORE project, University of Chile.) AbstractThe CORE project is a response to students’ protests against teaching in economics. It wants “to make economics accessible and relevant...

Lightweight cars and trucks better than expected, but heavy weight truck sales brought down the total: HighlightsJuly proved to be a very strong month for vehicle sales, pointing to accelerating strength for consumer spending. Vehicles sold at a 17.9 million annualized rate in the month which is far above June’s 16.7 million. Unit sales offer only a rough indication for the motor vehicle component of the retail sales report but July’s indication is unusually strong. Sales...

Much of social science has come to rely on a set of analytical approaches intended to identify specific influences within a range of confounding factors. The object of analysis is to separate the strands, to distinguish different influences, to attribute influence to particular variables. This has to be done in the face of multiple, competing influences. As a discipline, economics goes about this in different ways. The traditional approach of classical economics is theoretical and...

rom David Ruccio U.S. Olympic rower Megan Kalmoe doesn’t want to talk about water quality anymore. As she explained on her blog, journalists are ruining the 2016 Olympic games by being “fixated on shit in the water.” We are American, and we are going to Rio to represent you in this potentially flawed and imperfect setting that you are trying so desperately to get the public to love to hate.  We are going to compete for medals to bring them home to you, and for you so that the US...

Even this shows deceleration since the oil capex collapse: Early preview, not looking good: U.S. July auto sales miss estimates as pent-up demand slackens By Bernie Woodall August 2 (Reuters) — DETROIT: Four major automakers in the U.S. market on Tuesday reported July vehicle sales slightly below expectations as the pent-up demand that has helped drive sales since 2009 plays itself out. In a continuing trend, consumers shunned passenger cars in favor of SUVs and pickup...

Income a tenth lower than expected and remains depressed, spending was a tenth better than expected and up on higher energy prices. So looks to me like a mini ‘dip into savings’ that works against retail sales, etc. but just a guess. Prices a touch softer than expected and remain well below Fed’s target. And note the deceleration of the annual growth of real disposable personal income as per the chart, which is down to stall speed: HighlightsThe consumer continues to spend...

Manufacturing is showing signs of bottoming at the lower levels, as the lack of aggregate demand does it’s thing with the service sector: HighlightsEmployment fell slightly and delays in delivery times eased, two factors that held down the July ISM index to 52.6 vs June’s 53.2. But that’s not the important news. The important news is the new orders index which remains extremely solid, at 56.9 and pointing to future strength for employment as well perhaps as slowing for...

from Jayati Ghosh Even before the results of the UK referendum, the European Union was facing a crisis of popular legitimacy. The result, especially in England and Wales, was certainly driven by the fear of more immigration, irresponsibly whipped up by xenophobic right-wing leaders who now appear uncertain themselves of what to do with the outcome. But it was as much a cry of pain and protest from working communities that have been damaged and hollowed out by three decades of neoliberal...